Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the emergent 3D interactive media technologies are used as a viable tool for enhancing visitors’ overall experiences at an exhibition entitled, 300 Years of Hakka Kungfu – Digital Vision of Its Legacy and Future (Hakka Kungfu Exhibition) – presented and co-organized by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of Hong Kong, International Guoshu Association and the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

A questionnaire survey in both online and paper-based formats was used for identifying visitors’ experiences in the interactions with the multimedia technologies. For this research study, a questionnaire, consisting of 26 items, was set out to measure the visitors’ experiences at the Exhibition. Since the Exhibition was about presenting a centuries-old Chinese cultural heritage, Hakka Kungfu via the use multimedia technologies, in the context of establishing a dialogue between the past and present, the researchers included questionnaire items that were devoted to enquire about the level of understanding, knowledge and enjoyment, and visitors’ new knowledge about Hong Kong history and culture was successfully disseminated to the respondents at the end of the questionnaire.

A total of 209 completed questionnaires were collected at this Hakka Kungfu Exhibition. The findings reveal that the exhibits did attract people at all ages. This Exhibition gave the visitors a sense of interest and wonder in the object and information presented in the Exhibition. Findings of this study also reveal that this Exhibition has successfully attracted a large number of female visitors, as well as visitors who have never taken any martial arts training. In addition, visitors’ Exhibition experience was found to be memorable, as well as enjoyable. Furthermore, visitors’ experience within the Exhibition suggested that it was entertaining, as well as educational. By creating a long-lasting impact on the minds of these Exhibition visitors about the connections between and relevance of traditional Chinese Kungfu, their collective cultural identity, as well as the contemporary society we live in. The Exhibition exemplified the successful integration of the presentation of Kungfu as a form of cultural heritage with engagement-creating technology, in which technology is unobtrusive but effective.

Although it is already a global trend for the museums to integrate multimedia technologies into their exhibitions, research on the situation and feedback of multimedia technology used in the museum exhibitions in Hong Kong is scarce as well as scattered. Findings of this study could help identify various factors involved in audience participation, thereby exploring the possibility of building a contact point/space for traditional Chinese Kungfu as an intangible cultural heritage, via the integration of the latest media technologies. In particular, the development of multimedia technologies has become increasingly important to museums, and museum professionals have been exploring how digital and communication technologies can be developed to offer visitors a more interactive, personalized museum experience. In general, despite the growing interest in deploying digital technology as interpretation devices in museums and galleries, there are relatively few studies that examine how visitors, both alone and with others, use new technologies when exploring the museum contents.

This paper is motivated by a concern about the ability of the average Malaysian income to catch up with the rapidly increasing house prices in Peninsular Malaysia. Financial innovation in financial system now regards houses as a financial asset and speculation vehicle. Therefore, a house purchase is made to acquire not merely a necessity but also a financial asset which can generate future returns. Given the problems in the housing market, this paper aims to examine the determinants of house prices in Malaysia, including those such as income, population, foreign inflow and speculation.

This study adopts panel data analyses, namely, the fixed effect model (FEM) and the pooled mean group (PMG), and uses data at state level in quarterly frequency, spanning from 2005Q1 to 2013Q4.

Based on the results of FEM, these determinants influence house prices significantly. Moreover, the PMG results suggest that there is convergence in the model, which are indicated by the significant and negative sign of the error correction term. In conclusion, the rapidly increasing house price is not caused by speculation activities in the housing market. More precisely, Malaysian income is capable of catching up with the increasing house prices.

As income remains to be one of the major drivers in influencing Malaysian house price, Malaysian Government shall continue the policies of supply low cost houses to the low-income groups and My First Home Scheme (SRP) by offering less stringent rules in applying house loan for the first-time house buyers.

This study used the actual data of foreign housing purchase obtained from Malaysia Valuation and Property Services Department to represent foreign inflow; therefore, the results will reflect the impact of foreign inflow in a better manner.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This study contributes to the understanding of the health effects of pesticides exposure and of how pesticides have been and should be regulated.

This study presents literature reviews for the period 2000–2013 on (i) the health effects of pesticides and on (ii) preference valuation of health risks related to pesticides, as well as a discussion of the role of benefit-cost analysis applied to pesticide regulatory measures.

This study indicates that the health literature has focused on individuals with direct exposure to pesticides, i.e. farmers, while the literature on preference valuation has focused on those with indirect exposure, i.e. consumers. The discussion highlights the need to clarify the rationale for regulating pesticides, the role of risk perceptions in benefit-cost analysis, and the importance of inter-disciplinary research in this area.

This study relates findings of different disciplines (health, economics, public policy) regarding pesticides, and identifies gaps for future research.

Although it is widely acknowledged that health care delivery systems are complex adaptive systems, there are gaps in understanding the application of systems engineering approaches to systems analysis and redesign in the health care domain. Commonly employed methods, such as statistical analysis of risk factors and outcomes, are simply not adequate to robustly characterize all system requirements and facilitate reliable design of complex care delivery systems. This is especially apparent in institutional-level systems, such as patient safety programs that must mitigate the risk of infections and other complications that can occur in virtually any setting providing direct and indirect patient care. The case example presented here illustrates the application of various system engineering methods to identify requirements and intervention candidates for a critical patient safety problem known as failure to rescue. Detailed descriptions of the analysis methods and their application are presented along with specific analysis artifacts related to the failure to rescue case study. Given the prevalence of complex systems in health care, this practical and effective approach provides an important example of how systems engineering methods can effectively address the shortcomings in current health care analysis and design, where complex systems are increasingly prevalent.

Based on the theory of habitual domain, the purpose of this paper is to explore inter‐firm networks' mechanisms for coping with environmental change and for assisting firms to adapt to their collaborative networks. Business globalization is driving more and more individual firms to form inter‐firm collaborative networks. These networks need to develop new types of strategic capability in order not only to adopt a robust business process that will achieve high efficiency, but also to develop a network system for responding to external environmental changes.

With insights gained from the case study, the paper develops an analytical framework for deconstructing the network behavioral changes based on the network habitual domain concept and discusses the dual roles of the network‐based habitual domain in network behavioral changes.

This paper demonstrates how a Chinese telecommunications service company and its inter‐firm network became the market leader in one of the provincial capital cities in China within six years.

From an endogenous perspective, this paper contributes some useful concepts that may assist both academia and managers to identify network‐based habitual domains, improve the domains continuously, enhance their response capabilities, and formulate appropriate strategies according to the competition's requirements.